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Two Wrongs Make It Right/One
one “Everyone’s got their own demons Even wide awake and dreaming” --Jet Black Heart, 5SOS --jet I groom my pelt, ready to leave at the break of dawn. My father isn't home yet, which is to be expected. I haven't seen him home for three days now. "Jet?" I glance over to see Holly staring up at me. She's always the first to wake, although I can see Silvia already stirring. Jacky stays fast asleep. "Yes, Holly?" I wait patiently for her to speak. "Do you have prey?" Of course; I should have known this is what it is about. My brother and sisters are always hungry. My father doesn't bring back any prey, in fact he uses all the prey we have to indulge himself with herbs that erase his mind of the hardships of life. I bring enough prey home from work but I know it's never truly enough. "Sorry, I didn't get time to hunt last night," I sigh, "I was out late on a shift and had to get home to get some shut-eye." Holly deflates but I press my nose briefly to the top of her head. "I'll get some prey home tonight, okay? Maybe even during a shift if I get lucky and get placed on some guard duty at a Deposit." "Okay," Holly mumbles, "Jacky always hunts during the day." "See, there you go," I send her back towards her nest, "I'll come home as early as I can with prey okay?" Every time I go to work, I get a few pieces of prey in response. I still have to hunt after to feed myself and so my father doesn't end up beating the dung out of me when I come home, but other than that, it's enough. "Okay," Holly repeats before retreating to her nest. I watch as she curls up next to Jacky and Silvia to keep warm. I hope they know to stay in the den unless they're hunting because there's nobody to watch them unless by some miracle my father comes back. "Stay in the den," I still remind them, as I see Silvia's curious blue eyes watching me as I left. It's a long walk from my den to the IceClan stronghold, of main camp. I set out at a brisk pace, as I don't want to miss a morning shift that would cost me prey. Rogues aren't required to show up to work every day, but you can't exactly drop out either in the middle. Once you sign up, you're in until the Clan decides they don't need you. A few absenses here and there won't matter, but if you stop showing up completely, the Clan will come after you. Each shift pays me at the end. There's a morning, day, and night shift. I work all three in order to gather six pieces of prey. Two pieces each--that's it. It's almost the beginning of morning shift when I finally reach the stronghold entrance. I head inside and the guards at the entrance asks for my name. "Jet," I answer listlessly. They note that I've reported in today and one guard nods to him. "You're good. You don't have to report back for individual shifts. You're on assignment for the entire day with another cat." She points down the path with one paw. "Go to the station on the left near the big oak tree." "Thanks," I scoot past them and head down the path. I'm in no hurry. Chances are if I'm on assignment all day it means I'm on patrol." When I turn the corner to the big oak tree I see a small, calico she-cat waiting for me. She's alone, which means she's my assignment partner. I frown but I head towards her anyway. "Hi," she says when I walk up to her. I ignore her. "Are you on assignment with me?" I glower down at her. "Yes," she glares at me, "unless your name isn't Jet." "It's Jet all right. Who are you?" "They didn't tell you?" The she-cat rolls her eyes. "Why would they need to?" I snort, "You're the only cat standing here. And obviously they told you my name so you can identify the cat you're supposed to be patrolling with." "I'm Lavender." I'm taken aback by how elegant it sounds rolling off of her own tongue. Usually when cats say their name, it comes off strangely like it wasn't meant to be said by them. Lavender...an elegant name for such a tough looking she-cat. "Lavender, huh? What's our assignment?" "Patrol." I flick an ear and mutter. "Looks like I'll be doing all the work." I eye Lavender's small stature and the way her body is slim rather than muscular. She doesn't look like she's going to be any help in a fight if we encounter any intruders. Intruders are the cats who live outside IceClan's borders and have been fighting against IceClan to defeat them for the longest time. I hear they want to kill all of us, even the rogues who live outside of IceClan's rituals and ways. Which is pointless because it's not like we're actually loyal to the Clan. They're just our source of getting the right amount of prey and in my case, I like knowing I'm doing something for the better good. I can tell Lavender heard my comment because her ear flicks, but she doesn't acknowledge it any further. She ignores me and walks towards the exit of the stronghold (one that doesn't pass through the check-in). "You a coward?" I sneer, rolling my eyes as I follow her. She should be following me. "Cowards are the ones who fight the wrong battles to prove themselves," Lavender says calmly, "the wise ones will walk away when it's not worth fighting." I snarl a little at her comment but before I can get into it, an officer growls at us. "No arguing during shifts. You're meant the work together, not to tear each other apart." "Don't worry, sir," Lavender smiles at the soldier. "I've got it under control." I bristle at that but another glare from the soldier makes me sulk back and just follow Lavender out of camp. I don't speak to hear until we get to the edge of IceClan territory where we're supposed to patrol. "Stuck-up know-it-all," I mutter, purposely letting Lavender hear, "you think you know everything don't you? You have all the looks to make everyone believe you, but that won't get you anywhere. This life is all about war and surviving." To Lavender's credit, she ignores me completely as I continue to insult her. "And you probably have a fine, wealthy life. Why do you bother coming here, where you're not going to be any use with your tiny figure and your skinny legs?" Lavender isn't skinny but it felt weird to just say she couldn't fight because she was smaller than me. To my surprise, Lavender whirls around, her eyes flashing. "Stop acting you know everything about me," she snaps, "you don't know my story." I blink in momentary shock. I flatten my ears and try to rack my brain for a good response but before I can give her a response, I smell the scent of five cats. Lavender notices as well because she turns quickly to face the border as five intruders step out. I crouch down, sliding out my claws. "Crossing the border means death for you," I hiss. "Who says?" One she-cat snorts, "The two of you can't stop all of us." I reflect on my insults about how Lavender couldn't fight. I better hope to IceClan's StarClan that she can fight because if she can't I'm dead. Scratch that, we're both dead. "We're going to take down IceClan," another tom declares, "starting with the two of you fools." Lavender crouches down next to me, her yellow eyes glowing with anticipation and determination. I'm momentarily impressed by her courage when we might be facing death. No time to think about that now...the first cat lunges across the border towards us. --lavender I duck as the first cat flies over my head and I slash my claws towards the second. The other three are attacking Jet but I can't worry about that right now. The first cat is going to be coming up behind me while the second is attacking from the front. After a split second, I roll to the side. The two cats smack right into each other, cursing. While they're trying to untangle themselves, I attack. I slice through their fur, creating cuts wherever my claws meet their skin. I've never had a passion for fighting, unlike Jet, who's been trying to pick a fight with me all day. Quickly, I glance over at Jet to see how he's doing. He's struggling under the weight of all three cats. These cats are strategetic, and even a fighter like Jet can't defeat all of them without sustaining major injuries. I had to deal with these two cats and help Jet. Movement on my left alerts me. I spin around and snarl, though it has no effect on the cat. He continues to barrel towards me and I take the hit, using his momentum to throw him into a tree. I then slash my claws through his pelt, giving him a large gash down the side. The cat howls and takes off. One cat down, one cat left. This better be an easy fight. He takes me by surprise, dropping down from a tree before I can locate his position. I grunt under his weight as my legs collapse, making my right paw sting. I roll over, but he jumps off my back so I land hard on the ground, winding myself. I feel the sharp pains of his claws making contact with my soft skin but I surge upwards, knocking him backwards, aiming my claws from his neck. We can have no mercy with these intruders. But the cat sees it coming and he pushes me away before running. I'm surprised he doesn't just go after Jet but I suppose he fears I'll take his life if he stays any longer. I turn to the cats attacking my partner. Jet's black fur is barely visible under all that blood, and I sincerely hope most of it isn't Jet's. One cat is already lying dead in his own pool of blood but Jet is bleeding from several wounds and he looks too weak to beat his other opponents. I pick the closest to me, a brown she-cat with malevolent yellow eyes. She whirls around when my claws draw blood. She snarls and smacks me back but takes my bait. Instead of turning back to face Jet, she begins to battle me instead. With renewed energy, Jet manages to defeat his opponent very easily before wrenching the she-cat away from me. Jet's claws tears through her stomach, cutting her open. He drops her to the ground and lets her bleed out. I stand shakily and open my mouth to thank him when Jet turns on me, his eyes venomous. "I don't ever need your help," he hisses, "I could have taken all five of those intruders without you there." I blink once before shrugging. "I'm sure you could have." I promptly turn around and begin to walk away. Jet mutters but follows as we're supposed to patrol for the day. Luckily for me he doesn't make any comments on me or my family. Perhaps I have gleaned some form of respect from him because of my display of fighting skills today. (I still despise fighting...) On the patrol, Jet begins to hunt. At first I think this is normal, as there are Deposits where we can drop off our prey and at break time we're allowed to go to Deposits and eat the prey they provide. So it's only natural that we help hunt to stock up those Deposits (I hear some cats hunt to fill Deposits so they can get free prey as return). But when he's done hunting, Jet crouches down to eat. "There's a Deposit nearby," I tell him. He pauses from biting into the rabbit. "Excuse me?" "One should be that way," I point to the right with my tail, "there's three pieces of prey there and you're eating one of them. Assuming I eat the other one, we'd still have to carry the last piece around. If you don't want to carry them around we can just Deposit them." "I'm not going to give away perfectly good prey," Jet scoffs. "It's against the law to eat on patrol." The black tom stares at her. "Is it against the law to just try to survive? There are cats starving out here, outside of IceClan's little stronghold. They can't get any real prey from Deposits because Deposits are for soldiers only." Looks like the rumors are wrong then. "You're not struggling to survive," I frown, "with the prey they provide us after we finish our shifts, we have enough prey to make ourselves fat." I note that Jet is very skinny, despite his broad shoulders. "I'm not just feeding myself," Jet smiles sarcastically, "so if you don't mind, this is for my family." I feel a piercing pain in my heart at the mention of family. It doesn't seem right, for such a pessimistic person like Jet to have family when I have none. All I've tried to do my entire life is make everyone's lives better. Can't I ask for something in return? Something as small as family? I don't bother mention any of this to Jet. For the rest of the day, we patrol around, interrupted only by Jet scampering off to deliver the prey, leaving me standing there. He specifically ordered me not to follow him and so I didn't bother trying to rebel agianst his order since I didn't want to deal with his wrath. It wasn't worth it. Night falls and we head back. I had already eaten at one of the Deposits where Jet eats again. When we reach camp, Jet and I report to the cat in the front who listlessly tells us good job on today's work. I turn to leave, intending to be the first cat out when the cat stops us. "Oh, by the way, there's an excess amount of warriors and volunteers right now, so we're making pairs. Since the two of you patrolled together, you two are a pair." She walks back to her post and Jet groans. "I can't believe it. I'm stuck with you?" "Seems like it," I shrug, "I'm sure we'll do fine together." "How can you be so optimistic?" Jet rolls his eyes, "We're going to be the worst partners." "Who's fault is that?" I mutter but I don't turn around to keep arguing with Jet. I head home, ignoring the tom as he calls after me. It isn't until Jet fully catches up to me that I realize that he wants to talk to me for real. "Wait up," he pants, "the she-cat just told me we should get acquainted to one another and the best thing to do is to know where each other lives." I stare at him with my eyes. "Might as well get it over with," Jet continues, "let's go to your place." "Why mine?" "Because once I go to my place, I can't leave. You can come to my place and go back to your den after that without fear, right?" "Without fear?" I repeat, rolling my eyes, "Don't tell me you're scared of the dark." "No!" Jet flushes, "I have siblings to take care of, okay?" I fall silent and just nod. I lead the way towards my den, sighing inwardly. This was going to be a long night. Category:Two Wrongs Make It Right